Brian Lair, on WNYC, now to the race for Senate in the New Jersey seat, once held by Bob Menendez.

Congressman Andy Kim, the Democrat, and businessman Curtis Bashar met this week for the first of three scheduled debates.

There was a concerning moment on stage when Bashaw froze for several seconds and looked to be on the verge of passing out.

That came about 10 minutes in.

After a pause, things did get started up again, and the two candidates face questions about

affordability, immigration, and abortion, among other topics. It was mostly cordial, but there were a

couple pointed exchanges, which we'll hear some excerpts from. By the way, both these two candidates

would make history if elected to the Senate, Bashaw, who's presenting himself as a different kind

of common sense Republican, would be New Jersey's first ever gay U.S. Senator, and Kim would be the

first ever Korean American senator from any state. So we'll hear clips and get some analysis now

from Brent Johnson, political reporter in the State House Bureau of the Star

Ledger and their website, NJ.com. Hi, Brent. Welcome back to WN.R.C.

Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. First, how is Curtis Bashar doing?

Fine. I reached out to his campaign the day after this happened, and they said it was not a

medical issue. He just hadn't eaten a lot the day of the happened, and they said it was not a medical issue. He just hadn't eaten a lot

the day of the debate, and he was kind of famished and not feeling well, but I mean, it wasn't anything

serious and that he was doing fine. No need for medical testing, they told me. So can we assume that

this is not like when Joe Biden seemed to freeze on stage or have difficulty answering questions

over and over again in that now legendary debate. There's not some serious question about Curtis Bashaw's

health that might inform voters' decisions or even his party's decision about whether to try to remove them,

has happened to Biden?

No, I mean, the thing I kept hearing was people comparing it to Mitch McConnell when he had

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